Bad Girls

Written by Alex De Campi
Art by Victor Santos

I think that Alex De Campi must be one of the most underrated comics writers in the business.  She rarely writes the same kind of book twice, and has shown great diversity and originality in her output, demonstrating equal skill at depicting dystopian science fiction in Smoke, riveting teen relationships in No Mercy, spy thrillers in Mayday, romance stories in Twisted Romance, and cheesy genre exploration in Grindhouse.  Bad Girls is her take on a crime thriller, and it's a real treat.

The story is set on New Year's Eve in Cuba, the night that Castro took power.  It focuses on four women, and is centred around El Edén, a casino that caters to wealthy Americans, and has connections to the mob.  It's run by a sociopath, whose girlfriend wants to leave him, but has so far been frozen by terror (although she's happily sleeping with his driver).  Two other women from the club are main characters.  One is a single Cuban mother trying to decide where her loyalties lie, while the other is a singer who is not going to let a visiting mobster take advantage of her.  The fourth "bad girl" is an American who is simply looking for the best time possible, and becomes an easy stand-in for the traditional ugly American character, more interested in finding a better party than noticing how many people are fleeing the country.

As the night progresses, things get wild, especially when one of the women figures out how to get away with suitcases full of money amidst the chaos.

Victor Santos is the perfect artist for this book.  His choice of layout helps propel the more suspenseful moments forward, but he also manages to give each of these women a strong sense of character.

This is a very cool graphic novel, and it's beautifully produced.  I recommend checking it out.

The Pitiful Human-Lizard Season 4: Setbacks

Written by Jason Loo, Fred Kennedy, and Meaghan Carter
Art by Jason Loo and Meaghan Carter

I've been reading the Pitiful Human-Lizard's adventures in a few different formats over the last few years.  First, I bought some of the self-published comics directly from Jason Loo at TCAF, and then when the book was picked up by Chapterhouse Comics, I enjoyed getting them from my local comics store.  After Chapterhouse hit some difficulties, the series moved online, and I lost track of it, because I hate reading comics on the computer.  Recently, I saw that Chapterhouse had pulled things together a little, and were releasing most of their catalogue in trade, including this Season Four trade which physically collects the issues that were only published online.  I got the trade direct from Loo (taking things full circle) at a show recently, which is why I'm talking about it before it's actually officially published.

The Pitiful Human-Lizard tells the story of Lucas Barrett, an amateur superhero with the ability to regenerate from any injury.  When we last saw him (in the monthly comic, I'm not counting the special that Loo made to end the title that I got at TCAF last year), Lucas was in space helping Mother Wonder deal with some cosmic stuff. 

Now he's back, but he's lost his job, and the girl he was talking to is not interested in pursuing things.  Lucas has always been a down-on-his-luck kind of character, and things are starting to look bleak here.  His friend The Majestic Rat has moved away from the superhero world since settling down with his boyfriend.  He manages to get another friend captured by the company that's been producing, and losing, monsters at a rapid pace. 

This book has always had a lot of charm, and that continues here, but these four chapters feel a touch tired compared to the energy of the earlier issues.  Lucas is worn out, but also, maybe, is Loo?  The characterizations continue to be spot-on, but the collaborations with other creators cause this volume to lose some momentum, and the inclusion of Minuit, a Montreal-based hero, feels very random.

What's missing the most from this volume is the Toronto-centric storytelling that made the first couple of years of this book special to me.  Loo, however, is a very strong emerging talent, and I found that his final PH-L book, Some Heart Left, had everything that this volume was missing.  I look forward to seeing what Loo's next project (I know he has something online with Chip Zdarsky) is like.  I believe he's going to go far.

Sentient

Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Gabriel Walta

I've yet to be disappointed with an offering from TKO Studios, the up and coming publisher that offers their books as both a trade paperback and as a handsomely slipcased six-issue miniseries.

I was pleasantly surprised last week when I got my copy of Sentient, one of their second wave books, in the mail last week, having given up hope of it arriving this calendar year.

Like the previous ones I've read, I was immediately impressed with the production quality of the book, which has nice heavy paper, and a really good feel to it.  My pleasure only increased when I started to read the book.

Sentient is set on the USS Montgomery, a colony ship delivering a small group of families to a distant colony.  Things have gotten bad on Earth, and so it is time to start establishing families on the colony, even though it is being plagued by separatist unrest.  The journey involves passing through a radiation belt that makes communication with either Earth or the planet impossible (making me wonder how the two places communicate with one another).  As the ship passes into the silent zone, one of the women on board enacts her plan to kill all the other adults, and to take the large group of children living there to her separatist compatriots.

The plan doesn't work, as Valarie, the AI that runs the ship, kills the woman to protect the children (her safety protocols are shut off at the moment).  After that, Valarie has to continue her plotted trip, while also looking after the kids.  Lil, the oldest child, is more or less in charge of the kids, and she does not trust Isaac, the son of the murderess. 

This alone would make for an interesting story, as the AI has to figure out how to exceed her parameters, but Jeff Lemire tosses some other threats, from preteen rage to other separatist vessels, at her.  I found this book pretty suspenseful, and was impressed with the character development achieved in limited space.

Gabriel Walta's art is terrific on this book.  His muted colours work great on this paper, and he packs a lot of emotion into his characters' faces.  I find it interesting that in his first big work since the excellent Vision miniseries, he is again having to give life to robotic characters. 

I want to check out more of TKO's second wave, as this is the only book that I ordered from it.  I'm hoping they announce more titles soon, as everything they've done so far has been great.

The 7 Deadly Sins

Written by Tze Chun
Art by Artyom Trakhanov
Coloured by Giulia Brusco

The 7 Deadly Sins is the third TKO Studios book that I've read and loved (out of three).  I was immediately attracted to this book because I've become a big fan of Russian artist Artyom Trakhanov (Undertow and Turncoat were both brilliant).

This story is set in Texas in 1867, and focuses on life along the border of Comanche territory.  Threadgill, a priest, runs a station filled with orphans of the region, but we learn that he's not exactly an honest man of god.  One of his associates, Antonio, believes that the brutal attacks on American settlers are a response by the Comanche chief, Black Cloud, to Threadgill's actions, and resolves to take steps to correct the situation.

A prison transport comes through town, filled with a small group of people headed for execution, and in them, and the recent capture Jericho Marsh, a black former Union soldier hated in these parts, Antonio sees the opportunity that he needs.  He frees them, and offers to pay them handsomely for helping him to take him and his daughter to the Comanche.  Of course, they have to face outlaws, pursuing Rangers, and then, eventually, the Comanche themselves.

What follows is a brutal and dirty take on the Dirty Dozen/Suicide Squad model, set in a Western directed by Quentin Tarantino.  The character work by Chun, a writer and producer on the Gotham TV show, is excellent.  Most of these characters are given backstory to varying degrees, as some of the nastier ones make choices that can lead to redemption.

I was pleased with Chun's writing, but I was, as expected, very impressed with Trakhanov's art.  He, along with colourist Giulia Brusco, make it possible to really feel the dirt and squalor of this time period.  He is sometimes a confusing artist, storytelling wise, but his characters ooze empathy, and he has a cool approach to laying out a story.

I've really enjoyed these first three TKO Studios offerings (including Sara and Goodnight Paradise) I've read, and am beginning to think I should order the rest (I'm hoping that the second wave comes out soon, as I've already paid for the Lemire/Walta one).

Sara

Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Steve Epting
Colour by Elizabeth Breitweiser

TKO Studios is two for two with me now, as I found Sara to be as impressive as Goodnight Paradise.

In Sara, Garth Ennis returns to the Second World War, looking this time at the female Russian snipers deployed to slow the Nazi advance into Russian territory in 1942.  The group of women, all of whom have distinguished themselves at their task, form a kind of family, inhabiting a building left unstable from a tank collision, and going out during the day to hunt, well past the protection of the Russian Army.

Among the group, Sara stands out as the most accomplished, but also the least patriotic, something that her squad leader has noticed, and is working hard to hide from Raisa, the political operative assigned to the girls.

Ennis's best war stories tend to feature female protagonists (I'm thinking of the first wave of Battlefields books here), and this one is no different.  Sara is a layered and complex character, fighting for her own motives, and holding on to most of her opinions.  She's not blind to the use of propaganda, and the corruption and evil on her side of the war.  Still, she's made a vow to kill every German she sees.

TKO's books are published on very nice paper, and that helps Steve Epting's pencils and Elizabeth Breitweiser's gorgeous colours really stand out.  This book is beautiful, and the characters begin to feel very real.

At this point, you start to wonder if Ennis could possibly have more to say about war, but he always manages to surprise with a solid, meticulously researched story that leaves you thinking and caring about a perspective you might not have considered before.  I recommend this book, and am starting to think it's worth checking out everything TKO Studios is publishing.

Goodnight Paradise

Written by Joshua Dysart
Art by Alberto Ponticelli

Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli collaborated on one of my all-time favourite Vertigo comics, Unknown Soldier.  In their telling, they shifted the general idea behind the classic character to war-torn Uganda, and gave us one of the freshest and most interesting war comics I've ever read.  After that, Dysart made himself the backbone of Valiant's relaunch, writing Harbinger, the excellent Imperium, and The Life and Death of Toyo Harada.

Recently, Dysart and Ponticelli reconnected to create Goodnight Paradise for new publisher TKO Studios (more on them in a bit).  This brilliant and gorgeous graphic novel (or, if you prefer, six-issue miniseries) is set in Venice Beach, an area that is rapidly gentrifying and changing from the down-and-out haven for the homeless and lost that it's always been to the new home of Snapchat and hundreds of Airbnb units.

The main character is Eddie, an aging drunk who sleeps in the yard of a house near the beach, and spends his days drinking beer and hanging out with some of his friends.  News that his estranged son, Jeronimo, might be coming for a visit, sends Eddie spiralling a little, and it becomes apparent to us that he might not be the most mentally stable of people.  At the same time, we see that he cares deeply about his community and the people who make it up.  He shows concern for Tessa, a young woman who isn't doing well, and later, ends up finding her body (and her dog's) in a dumpster.

From here, Eddie takes it on himself to try to figure out what happened to the girl, which takes him down a rabbit hole of shady real estate dealings, drug dealers, and the kind of people looking to exploit young homeless women for money.

This is a very intelligent book, which works hard to not reduce any of these characters to stereotypes or archetypal portrayals.  It feels like Dysart understands these characters and the challenges faced by communities like this, and was careful to be fair to them.

Ponticelli, for his part, kills on this book.  The art is a mix of drawn and painted pages (with colour art provided by Giulia Brusco), and it captures the look and feel of Venice Beach, based on my memories of a day spent there a few years ago, beautifully.  The juxtaposition of the beach, sun, and surf with the squalor of the homeless encampments is poignant, but like in Dysart's writing, Ponticelli gives everyone great dignity.

This is the first book I've read from TKO Studios, a new publisher that is testing out some unconventional practices.  They are not distributing their books through Diamond, but instead through their own site.  Readers have the choice to purchase the trade paperback (which is slightly oversized and on high quality paper) or to buy the six-issue series as individual comics, packaged in a slipcase.  I'm not sure how I feel about that model.  I love serialization, but if I'm reading the story all at once, I'd prefer it be in one book.  Anyway, I've picked up two more of their first wave titles, and have preordered one of the upcoming releases.  They have some high quality creators working with them, and I'm excited to see what else they are going to have for us.

Walk

by Paul Tucker

When you grow up in a place, and stay there for any length of time, you begin to have all sorts of associations and random memories of it.

In Walk, a comic self-published by Paul Tucker, who is currently killing it on Black Mask's Nobody Is In Control, he goes for a 4.4 kilometre walk from his house in St. John's Newfoundland to the comic story and back.

Each page shows a different memory or small story set on a different street.  Along the way, we get a sense of how St. John's has changed over the years (an old hockey arena is now a grocery store, something that has happened here in Toronto too), but also how it stays grounded in its sense of place.

I love work like this, which is both accessible and incredibly personal.  Tucker's art conveys a deep love for the city.

Tet

Written by Paul Allor
Art by Paul Tucker

I'd thought about getting Tet when it was first published by IDW as a miniseries, because I'm a big fan of stories set during the Vietnam War, but held off because the creators, Pauls Allor and Tucker were unknown to me.  Recently, Tucker started working on the Black Mask series Nobody Is In Control, and I was intrigued by his Paul Azaceta/Tommy Lee Edwards-like art.

When I saw him at TCAF this year, I figured it was time to finally get my hands on this story. It is the story of an American lieutenant who fell in love with a Vietnamese woman while he was stationed in Huê City.  He was partnered with a Vietnamese detective when a friend of his was killed, but their investigation was cut short by the Tet Offensive.

From there, the story picks up in 1984, where we see that Eugene, who was injured badly, never got past what went down.  He ended up losing his girl, but when he receives word that Báo, the cop he worked with, has finally tracked down someone who knows what happened to his friend, he returns.

This is a dark and moving story, that is told very well.  Tucker's thick lines add real weight to things, as we get to know these characters, and understand how war wrecks just about everything it touches.  I recommend this book.

Sobek

by James Stokoe

It's been way too long since we've seen James Stokoe do his thing.  Sure, there was that great Aliens four-parter he did last year, but there's something that makes a creator-owned book a little more special.

Sobek is a one-off comic, with a gold foil cover, that centres on the Egyptian crocodile god.  A boat piloted by three acolytes travels to Sobek's home to let him know that denizens of Set have invaded his temple and are causing problems for his worshippers.  Sobek sets out to address the issue, in his own time and fashion.

As a Stokoe comic, the story becomes secondary to the insanely detailed artwork.  This is a beautiful comic, full of humour and lush colours.  It's a quick and fun story, and I'm glad I was able to pick it up.  Personally, I wish Orc Stain would get finished one day, but I'm also always going to be happy to get a comic like this from Stokoe.  It's worth searching for.

The Pitiful Human-Lizard: Some Heart Left

by Jason Loo

I've been a fan of Jason Loo's Pitiful Human-Lizard since I first sampled it at TCAF four years ago, buying the two issues on offer at that time.  I immediately fell in love with the way Loo portrays Toronto in his comics, and also enjoyed his everyman approach to superheroics.

Lucas has been doing his best to become a hero for our city, despite the fact that he's not really all that good at it.  Loo built a large ensemble cast for this series, including other heroes, villains, and some unique people who became a part of Lucas's life and world.  The book started as a self-published venture, and then got picked up and reprinted by Chapterhouse Comics, before that company apparently went into hiatus.

Now, at this year's TCAF, Loo debuted Some Heart Left, the final Pitiful Human-Lizard comic.  I think there were some digital comics released after Chapterhouse stopped publishing physical ones (I'm still holding out hope for a trade), but really, this is the first that I've seen Lucas and friends in a while.

This self-published comic is mostly made up of short strips of one page or so, which check in on Lucas and some of the other regulars, showing us what's up with them.  Lucas is working for "Food Dash", delivering takeout on his bicycle, and is finding that the costumed business is not as satisfying as it used to be.  His father is starting to decline, and he is not seeing a lot of his friend Kenneth, the Majestic Rat, so much.  Mother Wonder is still off in space.

In a lot of ways, this goodbye to these characters is a sad affair.  It feels like everyone is moving forward except for Lucas, who is a little sadder than normal because his optimism makes him feel a little clueless.  At the same time, this book has a number of high points, such as Lucas facing his fear of heights.

Perhaps my favourite part of this book comes in the form of a folded page tucked into the middle, which shows Lucas visiting Kim's Convenience, a local corner store that is the set of a sitcom on TV (and Netflix).  Loo captures those characters beautifully.

I'm going to miss seeing more Pitiful Human-Lizard, but look forward to seeing where Loo goes next with his career.  It's guaranteed that I'll be buying his next work.

Pope Hats #6

by Hartley Lin

Pope Hats is one of those books that I most associate with TCAF, the Toronto Comics Arts Festival, as I think I've bought every issue so far at the festival.  Much of Pope Hats's previous issues were recently collected in the graphic novel Young Frances, and the book's creator, recently did away with his pen name, Ethan Rilly, and embraced his own name, Hartley Lin.

This latest issue is a departure from previous ones.  This issue is much more autobiographical, as Lin muses on becoming a father, moving, finding his relationships with old friends changing, and generally moving into a new stage of his life.

Lin is Canada's Adrian Tomine, and his stories share a similar insight into humanity.  This issue's shorter strips don't allow the space to really dig into and explore any one topic, but the overall effect of reading this issue forms a gestalt image of where Lin is in life.

This was another solid issue in this series.

Ginseng Roots #1

by Craig Thompson

Craig Thompson, best known for his blockbuster graphic novels Blankets and Habibi, has returned with a serialized comic book called Ginseng Roots, which is about his childhood growing up in Marathon Wisconsin, the one-time centre of American ginseng production.

As a kid, Craig and his brother Phil worked through the summers alongside their mother, picking weeds and caring for ginseng plants on large farms that specialized in the delicate and lucrative root.  As we learn about how this labor shaped him, we also learn a great deal about the root itself, its needs, and some of the folklore and history that surrounds it.  We also see how the Thompson boys' love of comic books helped motivate them to work in difficult conditions (they calculate their wages in number of comics they can buy per hour).

This is a very solid piece of work, beautifully illustrated and coloured in grey tones with red highlights.  The book itself is printed on newsprint, giving it a real old-school feel, but is also beautifully drawn.

This series is expected to last for twelve issues, which is interesting to me because this first one feels so complete.  I'm not sure where Thompson intends to go with this from here, but I can see a wealth of potential, considering how unique the ginseng industry was (and probably still is), with its difficult manual labour, its great potential to create millionaire farmers, and the intricacies of interacting with a largely Asian market in 1980s middle America.

I like that this book is going to be serialized, and while that is going to make it more expensive than a one-off graphic novel would be (despite what the photo says, this issue's cover price is $5), it will make the individual issues something to be treasured.

Best Wishes

Written by Mike Richardson
Art by Paul Chadwick

I consider Paul Chadwick to be one of the best straight-up comics artists in the business, so of course I wanted to read Best Wishes, his collaboration with Dark Horse president Mike Richardson.

This is a slightly odd magical realist series about work and relationships in New York City.  An old and ornate fountain is moved from Italy to New York's Central Park, but no one is aware of the fact that it might have some magical properties to it.  Cal is a struggling graphic designer who can't seem to break into the industry.  Mary is a struggling young woman who can't shake the feeling that her boyfriend, Josh, a famous quarterback, doesn't really love her.  When Cal and Mary make wishes in the fountain at the same time, their desires get mixed up.

In no time, Mary's random napkin doodle gets chosen as the new symbol of New York City, propelling her to the recognition and job that Cal wanted for himself.  When Cal meets Josh in an elevator while on his way to a job interview with Mary, Josh is not sure how to deal with the feelings that he starts to develop for the young man.  In no time, these three characters find themselves in a weird triangle of envy and desire.

I like the way that this book portrays the difficulty of simply living in New York City, as the characters struggle to make ends meet, and even acts of generosity don't extend further than the closest Ikea.  These characters, and the people that surround them, are very well-realized, and the implausible aspects of this story don't get in the way of enjoying their travails.

Of course, this book is so capably drawn that I'm sure it inspired the kind of envy that Cal shows throughout the book.  Chadwick is a treasure - he makes emotionally complex scenes clear and easy to understand.  I'm glad that Richardson is able to make sure that stories like this get told.  This was a quiet book that didn't make much of a splash, but is really worth taking a look at.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies

Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips

There is no better partnership in comics today than the one between Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.  Their collaborations are always great to read, and push the boundary of whatever genre they choose to work in, be it crime, horror, or any combination of the two.  They are probably best known for their crime book, Criminal, which they are going to be returning to on a monthly basis very soon.

First, though, they published this Criminal novella, My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies.  It's the story of Ellie, a young woman who has spent her life on the margins of society.  Highly intelligent, she's always been drawn to the subculture of street drugs, idolizing musicians and writers who used heroin to fuel their creative fires.

In this slim hardcover, Ellie has been sent to a rehab clinic, where she meets and falls for Skip, a young man who is serious about getting clean, and who is holding on to a few family secrets.  Ellie knows that she is going to be trouble for Skip, but she can't quite help herself, and soon the two of them are on the run, and trying to figure out their next steps.

At least, that's what it all seems like on the surface, but because Ed Brubaker is writing this book, there's a lot more going on than just that; I just don't want to spoil things for anyone.

As is always the case, this book is a great character study, and examination of the mind of people who live on the edges, and have to live with the harm they cause.  There is a reticence to Ellie from the first page that makes her a very interesting character, and maybe not the most trustworthy narrator.

Phillips and Brubaker work beautifully together, complimenting one another's strengths perfectly.  This book is coloured by Jacob Phillips, not their usual collaborator Bettie Breitweiser.  Phillips uses more pastel watercolours, and especially in the daylight, gives the book a more optimistic feel.

This was a great comic.  I'm excited to see what the duo has in store for us with their new Criminal run, and I'm curious if we will see Ellie again.

The Terrible Elizabeth Dumn Against the Devils in Suits

by Arabson, adapted by James Robinson

One of my favourite things about Image Comics is the way in which they will seemingly randomly put out a comic with little fanfare that has the ability to completely brighten one's day.  I'm not familiar with the work of the Brazilian cartoonist Arabson (except to notice that his name is starting to pop up on the variant cover circuit), but the Paul Pope-esque cover of this oversized one-shot magazine formatted comic, The Terrible Elizabeth Dumn Against The Devils In Suits, really jumped out at me on the stands this week, and when I saw it was only $6, I had to have it.

Arabson's story begins in a smallish city in Brazil, when an old man knocks on the door, very late at night, of a person he hasn't seen in over twenty years.  We quickly learn that the younger man owes the older a debt, and that the older man is the devil.  The price, made on a promise decades before, is the man's first-born son, but he quickly makes the offer of his daughter instead, claiming that she is so wild, even the devil couldn't tame her.

Elizabeth, we then learn, is in a boarding school, where she has been a near-constant source of trouble for the beefy nuns who run the place.  Warned by her mother, Elizabeth hits the road, trying to stay away from her father's debt, and ends up travelling with a musician who once made a similar deal.  Elizabeth, being who she is though, is not so much the type to run from her problems as face them head-on.

Arabson's art is terrific in this book.  He keeps the Paul Pope influence throughout, but there are also elements of Frank Quitely and Rafael Grampá here too.  I like how his characters show emotion, and found the backgrounds often worth studying.  This is a very solid book, and I'd like to see Image publishing more foreign comics like this, in this exact, affordable, format.  Highly recommended.